Rio Lagartos

With another four days to burn before Naomi’s final rabies shot, we drove out to Rio Lagartos, 70km north of Valladolid. The town is small and isolated, a long way from any other settlements. Nevertheless it has a well paved road all the way from Tizimin, 50km to the south, no doubt due to the high number of visitors when compared to the other fishing villages along the Gulf coast. What attracts visitors to make the journey from Valladolid, is not the town itself but the residents that live east, along the coast and lagoon. For most of the year, thousands of Flamingos live in the area, and Rio Lagartos makes a decent income from providing boat tours, taking tourists to visit the nesting sites. The launchas that take people to see the flamingos are priced to take six people out, unfortunately with just Naomi and me the cost was more than our budget allowed and so we had to pass on the opportunity.

Thankfully our journey was not wasted. Rio Lagartos has an excellent free camping site east of town on the waterfront. The site is a huge area of compacted sand, with direct access to the lagoon, a freshwater swimming pool, a bar and a restaurant. The area has a strong breeze that provides relief from the heat and we spent three days there, relaxing, swimming, and hanging out with a couple we’d met in Palenque and bumped into again in Chichen Itza a few days previously.

Our stay at Rio Lagartos coincided with the start of the week long Mexican national holiday of Semana Santa, and due to its relative remoteness we enjoyed a respite from the hordes of Mexicans that descend on all attractions all over the country. Sadly we could not see out this week of screaming children and inflated prices in the tranquillity of Rio Lagartos as we had to return to Valladolid for Naomi’s final rabies shot. Whilst Valladolid itself was acceptable, our next stop, the Caribbean coast was possibly the worst choice of destination we could have made in respect to avoiding the throng.